Don inaug. panel eyed by probers
Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating whether President Trump’s inaugural committee misused some of the record-breaking $107 million it raised and whether deep-pocketed donors were offered access to the incoming administration in exchange for cash, according to a report Thursday.
The nascent criminal probe, which was recently launched by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, is based in part on records seized during FBI raids at the office and homes of Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
The inauguration development poses yet another legal threat to a President who already faces criminal investigations into his campaign, his namesake foundation and his family’s real estate company. Cohen, meanwhile, was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a laundry list of crimes — some of which directly implicate Trump.
Among the materials that reportedly spawned the inaugural investigation was a recorded conversation between Cohen and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former aide to First Lady Melania Trump who worked on the committee.
In the recording, Wolkoff is expressing concern about the way in which the committee had been spending donations, according to the sources.
Using funds from an inaugural committee in a nonofficial capacity could violate federal law. More seriously, offering a pay-to-play scenario for political donors could constitute federal corruption.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, tried to downplay the President’s connection to his own inaugural committee and said he had no knowledge of any misuse.
“The last thing a Presidentelect has time for is inaugural fund-raising,” Giuliani told the Daily News in a text message. “Like all the 2 million-plus in campaign funding irregularities for Obama and for Clinton, a President is generally not aware of mistakes and irregularities in spending.”